AEW: Wardlow’s Journey To The TNT Championship Raises Both

As Jim Ross said, “The future is bright” for Wardlow. He has broken his chains from MJF and looks to become the most dominant force in AEW. His first target as officially #AllElite is whoever is the reigning TNT Champion.

You could take a look at Wardlow since he debuted as MJF’s bodyguard that he had the potential of being something special. He has the look, the size, and the skill to one day stand as the face of the AEW roster as the AEW World Champion. After winning his feud with his former “boss” Maxwell Jacob Friedman, Wardlow is finally free from him and most importantly an “official” member of the All Elite Wrestling roster. While it looked like Wardlow would be pushed straight to the world championship, Wardlow had his eyes set on another championship. A championship that Wardlow was close to winning only a few months ago.

Wardlow stated that he would focus on the world championship in the future when he could defeat the “actual” champion CM Punk. Until then, Wardlow has his mind set on winning the TNT Championship and bringing prestige back to the championship that he said some past holders have degraded. However, there are multiple obstacles that are in his way of winning that championship. He has Mark Sterling on his back trying to threaten him with legal action. Although, after beating twenty “plaintiffs” to dismiss the case on Dynamite and a powerbomb to Sterling, Wardlow may have gotten past that part.

Even though Sterling off his back will be some relief, there is still plenty of people on Wardlow’s back. If Wardlow wants to get his hands on the TNT Champion Scorpio Sky, he is going to have to go through Dan Lambert and American Top Team. While a group filled with top wrestlers and MMA fighters in the world is intimidating to anybody, Wardlow might be the guy to fight them all off. Even though they were a part of a successful beat down of Wardlow with MJF and Shawn Spears back in March. Although that was then and this is now, Wardlow may want revenge.

Most recently. we have seen that not every member of the American Top Team is down to do Lambert’s dirty work or at least they aren’t so hard to convince to change their mind. MMA American Top Team member and former UFC Welterweight Champion Tyrone Woodley and UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes stormed the ring on Dynamite at the command of Lambert. However, Wardlow managed to convince the two that they weren’t that much different and stopped their potential attack. Instead, they helped Wardlow out with disposing of Mark Sterling and posed with Wardlow while Dan Lambert was steaming mad.

Despite the fact Hughes and Woodley were convinced to not fight, it just shows the potential threats up Dan Lambert’s sleeve. Wardlow has to watch every direction because Dan Lambert has enough people on his side that you can never expect which way they could come from. While that would be hard for most men to handle, Wardlow has shown that he is hardly an ordinary man. He will take everything that Lambert and American Top Team have to throw at him in order to get his hands on Scorpio Sky once again and finally win the TNT Championship.

That is the type of story that the TNT deserves. While taking nothing away from Sammy Guevara and Scorpio Sky’s title reigns, the TNT Championship hasn’t felt as special as it did when former champions such as Miro and Darby Allin were dominating for months. Since the start of 2022, the TNT Championship has changed hands four times between two men. The championship started to feel like a toy being tossed around by rivaling kids at one point. In his second reign, Scorpio Sky has held onto the title for over a month and can hold onto it for a bit longer.

There is no reason that Wardlow should get his championship match at Forbidden Door and become the new TNT Champion. There is a ton of potential between Wardlow and the members of the American Top Team to have a great feud between them. Wardlow can be put to the gauntlet from now until AEW’s next pay-per-view after Forbidden Door. The longer that the audience has time to get invested in Wardlow’s story the better. Ideally, AEW should get as much heat as they can possibly generate for the American Top Team before the eventual collision.

With the fans wanting Wardlow to get his hands on Lambert and company, the eventual match will mean that much more. Then once Wardlow manages to take out every member of the American Top Team that gets in his way, he can focus on one and powerbomb Scorpio Sky until he gets tired of doing so and becomes the new TNT Championship. After months of build-up and a meaningful reign by Scorpio Sky, Wardlow winning the TNT Championship will be the biggest accomplishment of Wardlow’s career and the TNT Championship will look like a big deal.